Crypto founders in their 20s

On a recent tech podcast, the host posed an intriguing question to computer scientist and Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham: “Why are there so few great founders in their twenties today?” It’s not clear this is the case, but it does feel that way. Whereas a new wunderkind figure like Mark Zuckerberg, Evan Spiegel, and Patrick Collison—founders of Facebook, Snapchat, and Stripe—seemed to arrive on the scene every year or two, it’s hard to name someone like that who’s emerged in the past five years.

Graham said he’s unsure if the disappearing founders theory is accurate, but he wagered some guesses as to its cause. It could be, Graham said, that fewer young people are thinking big—or perhaps they have grown too comfortable or complacent to go out and build world-changing companies.

Meanwhile, here at Fortune, a colleague pointed to a blog post that offered an alternate explanation: There are just as many great founders as ever, but some of the best and brightest channeled their energy into crypto, which led to a dead end and, in turn, a “lost generation” of founders.

The pseudonymous blog author pointed to four examples: FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, Do Kwon of the failed Terra stablecoin, as well as the founders of hedge fund 3AC and of crypto lender BlockFi. All of them, the writer says, came on the scene when social media platforms and sharing companies like Uber had reached “escape velocity” and when crypto seemed like the next big idea—only for the industry and their companies to founder.

It’s a neat theory that the best minds of the next startup generation were destroyed by crypto. But it’s also wrong. For starters, FTX and Terra didn’t fail for lack of a killer crypto app—they failed because their founders were stone-cold criminals. As for 3AC, a detailed New York Magazine profile made clear the fund failed because the founders were ethically challenged morons. BlockFi, meanwhile, collapsed in large part owing to harsh regulatory and market conditions.

At the same time, the crypto industry more broadly has produced its share of impressive founders who have built foundational companies. Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong, Kraken’s Jesse Powell, and Binance’s Changpeng Zhao fit the bill—and if you want someone still in their twenties, Vitalik Buterin created a world-changing project with his Ethereum blockchain.

As for other explanations for the apparent dearth of great twentysomething founders, my colleagues offered some good ones. Those include two years of pandemic lockdowns in major tech centers that deprived young entrepreneurs of critical networking and experience, and the fact that A.I. firms are the big new thing of our day—and are not something a kid in a dorm room can build. But I’m curious what you think. If you have an opinion on the dearth of great founders, including if such a lack even exists, drop me a line.

Jeff John Roberts
jeff.roberts@fortune.com
@jeffjohnroberts

DECENTRALIZED NEWS

Palo Alto–based crypto custodian BitGo raised $100 million from new investors at a $1.75 billion valuation, and plans to use some of the funds for acquisitions. (Bloomberg)

A new layer-1 blockchain called ZetaChain, which aspires to build an interoperable platform for a variety of chains, raised $27 million from Jane Street and others. (The Block)

Longtime mining outfit Blockstream, whose backers include Reid Hoffman, is investing heavily in mining rigs, predicting it will be able to resell them in a forthcoming rally tied to the 2024 Bitcoin halving. (Bloomberg)

House Republicans issued a letter asking the SEC to explain why off-brand outfit Prometheum received a key crypto license just in time for it to testify that the license was proof no new legislation is needed. (CoinDesk)

Grayscale is on the cusp of winning a court fight that will force the SEC to approve a Bitcoin ETF—but legal troubles and new competition from BlackRock could prevent the veteran crypto firm from reaping the fruits of its efforts. (Fortune)